


the one we all dream of but dreams just aren't enough

by notthebigspoon



Series: Amaryllis [22]
Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-10
Updated: 2012-08-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 21:13:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/482950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notthebigspoon/pseuds/notthebigspoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Brad is an all around decent guy, Ryan is an idiot and Mama Melky tells him so, and Melky's just there to eat and drink. Also there's a booty call.</p><p>Title taken from Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one we all dream of but dreams just aren't enough

Brad lives in a pay by the week apartment. It has a tiny kitchenette and a tiny living room and a tiny bedroom and a tiny bathroom. Really, it's ridiculously small for a guy of his stature. The building is, when he thinks about it, pretty sleazy. There's tweakers and boozers and beautiful women with sweet children that are too good for the losers they're married to. But then there's also his next door neighbor, whose age Brad can't even make a stabbing guess at because she's probably on every drug known to man.

So. Not the greatest neighborhood. But he's big enough to handle himself and he's only gotten into two fights over how guys were treating their wives or girlfriends. For a guy like him, used to being chivvied from pillar to post, it's tolerable. He never knows when he's going to have to move anyways.

Still, when Vogelsong calls and invites him to dinner with the promise of paella, Brad doesn't hesitate for even a minute before accepting. He changes, googles for the best wine that goes with paella and makes a liquor store stop before following his GPS to Ryan and Melky's house. He worries for about five seconds and then considers what his night would have been if he hadn't accepted: a microwave TV dinner, a beer, and cranking the TV up so he didn't have to hear his neighbors fighting or the sirens from the police's nightly visits to the building.

That's what makes it easy for him to just knock on the door and lets Melky show him in. He gives the wine to Melky's mom, who kisses his cheek and tells her son that at least one of his friends has decent manners before hustling Brad into the dining room. Vogelsong is already at the table, Melky's daughter in his arms. He smirks. “I see you survived Maria. You've got lipstick on your cheek.”

“You be nice to the boy. He's polite. What are you?” Maria asks, bumping Vogelsong with her hip and placing glasses of wine in front of both of them. Brad mumbles a thank you and smiles a little at the way she swats Vogelsong before pinching her granddaughter's cheek.

“An ungrateful wretch undeserving of your son.”

“And don't you forget it.”

Brad watches her go and takes a drink of the wine, “You two have a special relationship. Should I go help her?”

“Nah. Melky's in there. She ran me out of the kitchen, told me to make myself useful and keep an eye on Melianny.” Vogey grins, jiggling the baby a little. “She has no faith in me and a lot of the time, I think she thinks I'm stupid. Maria's great. Ryder loves her.”

“Looks like Cabrera's kid likes you too.”

“Too young to know any better. I'm enjoying her before she's old enough to be ashamed of me.” He murmurs, and the way he looks down at the baby, Brad would think that's she's his own.

The dinner is actually pretty enjoyable. Brad's never had paella but it tastes fucking fantastic. Vogey and Melky's mom seem to have a lovingly antagonistic relationship. Maria insults and picks at him but Vogelsong appears to be enjoying himself immensely. Cabrera mostly eats and drinks wine whereas Brad is looking back and forth and feeling oddly like he's watching a ping pong match.

Brad offers to help clean up, which earns him another kiss of the cheek from Melky's mom and a grumble from Vogelsong that Brad is making him look bad. He's shuffled off to the living room and the second he's on the couch, Vogelsong hands him the baby and collapses into a recliner.

“I... what... you can't give me this! What if I drop it and break it?!” Brad protests, and he's not even embarrassed by the high pitch of his voice. He stares down at the tiny child in his arms before looking up at Vogelsong. 

“Oh calm down, you'll be fine. And _her_ name is Melianny.” Vogelsong smirks, resting his hand on his stomach. “Jesus. I ate too much. Again. But that stuff is always so good...”

Brad frets for a minute but Melianny looks pretty content where she is, kind of sleepy actually. He smiles, jiggles her the way he'd watched Vogelsong do and he's ridiculously pleased when she fists her hand into his shirt. She blinks at him, yawns and promptly falls asleep. Okay, so maybe she's not as scary as she first appears.

Melianny stays in his arms the next couple hours until he's heading out the door. He hands her off to her father, gives Vogey a one armed hug and thanks him for the invite. He's pulled into a hug by Maria when he thanks her for a great dinner. He finally makes it out the door and to his truck, backing out of the driveway and heading home.

To be honest, it's one of the best nights he's had in a long time. His last couple teams, he was friendly enough with people but he never had anything like this. They've taken him in with open arms and made him one of them. He thinks about that game when he'd so clumsily came out to Ryan and how that had somehow led to him meeting someone amazing.

Not that things with Belt had been perfect. Like the misunderstanding with Crawford. Brad had just assumed that him and Brandon were more or less exclusive. Not that he was trying to hurry things but when he was sleeping with someone, he was sleeping with that person only. Then again, Brandon is 24 and who knows if he's not still testing the waters of his sexuality out. Which, he thinks, probably isn't nice or fair. Brandon had said last night, their bodies tangled together on a not quite big enough hotel bed, that Brad was what he wanted.

Brad doesn't want to get too far ahead of himself, but he has high hopes for this lasting. Going somewhere.

Really the only thing that bothers him is the age difference. Ten years isn't exactly nothing and Brad's always been a homebody anyways, not even factoring in his shyness and social awkwardness. Nights like he just had with Vogelsong and Cabrera are more his style, whereas Belt is perfectly content going out with the other twenty somethings and drinking until the whole world is just beautiful. At least, that's the kind of drunk Brandon is. Very touchy and happy and affectionate.

And... speak of the devil. There goes his phone. He reaches up to the rear view mirror and presses the bluetooth button. “Hello?”

“Um. Hi.”

Brad takes comfort in knowing that Brandon can be just as awkward as he can.

“Yeeees?”

“You busy?”

“Not really.” Brad murmurs, double checking his surroundings. He's almost to his apartment. His brain starts remapping the path to Brandon's. He's pretty sure that's what this is. Not that he's objectionable to a hookup. “Just had dinner at Vogey and Cabrera's place. Almost back to my place.”

“I'm free. If you wanna hang out.”

“Booty call?”

Brandon makes a startled noise and then he starts laughing. “Am I that obvious?”

“You're that obvious and maybe I'm that good.”

“Wow. Modest.” Brandon snickers. “I'm uh, already on your side of the city. Could save you a drive.”

“Uh. I'm not sure if you wanna come to my neighborhood. Kinda sucks.” Brad asks as he pulls into his parking garage. He double checks his surroundings as always, switching the conversation back to his phone before climbing out of the truck and heading into his building.

“I'm big enough and ugly enough to handle myself.”

“Fine, but I warned you. I'll text you the address and the apartment number and I'll see you in a little while, okay?”

Brandon answers an affirmative and hangs up. Brad does as he said he would, sending the address and heading up to his floor. It's actually pretty quiet tonight but then, it's getting kind of late. He nods at one of the more decent neighbors and shoves the door of his apartment open when it sticks... again. He makes a dash to clean the apartment up and get it looking relatively presentable.

Not that it matters. Because the second he opens the door, Brandon is yanking him in for a kiss and shoving a hand down his pants. He has all of five seconds to lock and chain the door before dragging Brandon to his bedroom and pushing him onto the bed. This is one of the best things about new relationships, before someone knows you enough to not be able to stand you anymore, the constant and uninhibited sex.

He loves dating younger guys.


End file.
